He seemed . . . almost . . . Buddhist.

This is the final line in a story about Parvez Ahmed, whose recent appointment to the Jacksonville, Florida Human Rights Commission brought out some fairly ugly anti-Islamic sentiment amongst some members of the City Council.

It’s amazing that he kept his composer so well through it all, but terribly sad that he had to go through it in the first place. And it reflects well upon Buddhist today that his show of composure would be linked to Buddhism, but there may not always be Dalai Lamas and Thich Nhat Hanhs around as the most public faces of Buddhism. Islam no doubt is worst off in America today, but those tables can turn, and as long as there is religious intolerance and bigotry, we are all at risk of being its victims. And, as with racism and sexism, we all suffer when ideological hatred such as this rears its ugly head.